Pivotal ideas in physics.

The article focuses on the book "The Scientific legacy of Fred Hoyle," edited by Douglas Gough. Hoyle was, without doubt, the most influential British physicist of the post-war era. There is barely a field of astrophysics or cosmology to which he did not contribute pivotal ideas. He has created many of those fields most notably cosmic nucleosynthesis, the study of the build-up of the elements in space, an area in which many believe he was cheated of the Nobel Prize. These and other topics are reviewed by a group of Hoyle's long-time colleagues, friends and admirers who gathered in Cambridge in 2002 to celebrate and review his scientific life.